WASHINGTON – If the setting was any more big-time Washington, you’d have needed a badge and a secret service escort just to get in.

Just a couple of blocks from the White House and a short walk from the Metro through Lafayette Square, D.C. United unveiled its two new investors in a lounge atop the iconic Hotel Washington. The room offered stunning views of the Washington Monument, the Ellipse, the Potomac River and said plenty about where Major League Soccer’s most decorated club hopes to be -- in the penthouse. In a position of power.

Imagine if the Oakland Raiders were winning again. Imagine how much more fun the NFL would be if the “Autumn Wind” whipped through the league once more, if the Silver and Black were in first place and if they played before famously raucous sell-out crowds at a state-of-the-art, downtown stadium. The Raiders brought a unique element to the sport that’s been missing as the franchise has slid from relevance. It would be nice to have them back.

The same can be said for United, which was American soccer’s pre-eminent club by every measure as a nascent MLS gained traction in the late 1990s and early 2000s. D.C. claimed three league titles in four years (’96, ’97 and ’99), became the first U.S. team to win the CONCACAF championship (in ’98) and set a standard in branding and stadium atmosphere that the rest of the league now regards as the paradigm.

But the rest of MLS caught up. New stadiums were built, expansion franchises became integral parts of the sports landscape in their respective cities and some clubs even made money.

And United slipped from its perch. Some of that had to do with the on-field performance – D.C. hasn’t made the playoffs since ’07 – but the sense that the Black-and-Red no longer were the league’s flagship franchise was more about how the progress made elsewhere compared to the crumbling edifice that is RFK Stadium and the dwindling crowds therein.

As stadium push after stadium push failed, as investors came and went and as the threat of a move out of the District (perhaps even to Baltimore) grew louder, fans became fatigued. Attendance from ’07 through last season dropped nearly 28 percent. United, once a source of pride among MLS executives, had become a major headache.

Enter Erick Thohir, an Indonesian media mogul, and Jason Levien, an attorney and former political strategist now based in New York City. On Tuesday atop the Hotel Washington, this apparent odd couple who met through their investment in the Philadelphia 76ers pledged both their devotion and their millions to doing more than restoring United to its former glory. They want to take D.C. global and, according to Levien, make the club the league’s “gold standard,” adding, “We’re trying to get to MLS 3.0.”

Both men are soccer fans. They began to think about acquiring a stake in an MLS club after attending an exhibition that Thohir arranged last November between the L.A. Galaxy and the Indonesian national team. Levien had lived in D.C. during the 1990s while working in the Clinton White House and remembered United’s glory days. Thohir, already heavily invested in basketball in both the NBA and Southeast Asia, wanted a soccer fix and a stake in a league that’s on the rise.

Talks began more than eight months ago. It’s understood that the pair now holds a majority of the club and will be considered partners along with Will Chang, the San Francisco-based businessman who bought into United in ’07 and took full control two years later.

“My first dream for D.C. United is to find a permanent home. The second dream is to turn D.C. United into a global brand. In Jason and Erick, I’ve found the perfect partners to fulfill my dream,” Chang said Tuesday as he introduced his new colleagues.

Levien, who Chang called a “very seasoned political veteran,” will be the local face of the ownership group and will be asked to lead the charge for a new stadium.

“We see a pathway and we also know that we’re going to have use our machetes together and we’re ready to do so,” Levien said. “I think there is a path.”

Thohir, who’s in his early 40s, will be the “rich uncle,” Levien joked. Thohir’s company, Mahaka Group, owns newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations and more. His father was a co-founder of the Astra International automotive company and his brother, Garibaldi, is an investment banker worth nearly $1.3 billion, according to Forbes. Neither money nor influence will be a problem – Erick Thohir will lead Indonesia’s Olympic delegation in London beginning later this month.

“Our new partners have real staying power. They come into this with their eyes wide open,” United president and CEO Kevin Payne told Sporting News. “This isn’t a land grab. This is a sports opportunity and they recognize they have to invest in the team initially and they’re willing to do that.”

That means on-field talent when necessary – although all were clear to credit the job that GM Dave Kasper and coach Ben Olsen have done in building a 10-5-3 team that’s currently tied for first place in the Eastern Conference – and financing a stadium once a site and the necessary cooperation from local authorities (no easy task) is secured.

All three owners fielded questions concerning the likelihood of a marquee designated player joining D.C. in the near future and all three insisted that the path to global relevance was lined with trophies, not big names.

“Superstar, headache,” Thohir told reporters.

“We have to invest in the quality of the product. We want to create the dynasty that D.C. United had in the ‘90s and we are fully committed. I brought in partners who were fully committed,” Chang said. “Erick, particularly, has a vision of turning D.C. United into a global brand … Erick and I will have greater say (on potential signings) and there will be input, but the person who will have the responsibility for the performance on the field is Benny, and if Benny’s not 100 percent on board, we won’t move forward.”

D.C. will be back in the playoffs before a new stadium is built. But the optimism surrounding the club rarely has been higher than it was on Tuesday, when a permanent home for MLS’ foundering flagship seemed like something more than a fading pipe dream. United has the worst stadium situation the league – one that commissioner Don Garber said has left him “continually frustrated.”

Without that home and the accompanying identity, security and revenue, United will fall further behind its competitors or perhaps even cease to exist as it’s now known. Should that happen, a significant chunk of American soccer history, authenticity and culture would go with it. Like the Raiders or even the Yankees, United is inextricably linked to its sport’s mythology.

“We’ve been putting the pieces in place for a resurgence,” Payne said. “Everything is pointing in the right direction now and this is, I think, a tipping point for our team. It’s exactly the right time for new investors to come in and really take us to the next level and that’s what I think is going to happen.”